"Results are less clear in London-North-Centre, where a fierce battle has been waged to seize the riding vacated by longtime Liberal Joe Fontana, who resigned to make a failed mayoral run in London."
And the politically foolhardy comment of the year must go to Steve Mackinnon for this:
"A byelection is a byelection. They do not reproduce the conditions of a general election. I don't think you'll hear us, either way, blaring from the rooftops that the country has reached a conclusion about the government..."
And now you've effectively closed the door on using a possible positive result for the Liberals in London-North-Centre as a springboard to fight the Harper Tories. Not that I'm complaining, but if this was a Tory I would be slapping myself in the face at this point.
And I have to say the professionalism I'm seen from the Harper team seems to be getting higher by the day:
"Conservative strategist Goldy Hyder said every seat is important in a minority Parliament, but noted neither seat is the government's to lose."
"Since the Quebec byelection comes on the heels of a strong show for federalism in the House of Commons, he said any slippage in support for the Bloc will be a good sign."
"'If you are doing a barometer of what success looks like for each political party, win or loss is defined by whether the BQ maintains its support or loses support,' he said."
"'It would be a good sign for federalism and a good sign for Canada, if there's any shift away from the BQ to a federalist party.'"
I seem to remember a day when Harper strategists would openly muse about winning elections in ridings where they had a very good chance of loosing. Politics is firstly about managing expectations. And apparently the new Harper Team is accutely aware of that fact.
''I don't think you'll hear us, either way, blaring from the rooftops that the country has reached a conclusion about the government..."
ReplyDeleteIn other words. The Liberals internal polls tell them Haskett has it!!